


Gently Now

by kuhime



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-03-29 10:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3893701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuhime/pseuds/kuhime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just awkward and sweet moments between two lonely people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gentle Touch

Kotetsu’s couch was worn in and comfortable, but I couldn’t relax. I was afraid that any movement would jostle his head in my lap. 

Earlier that day, Kotetsu had gotten slammed by a bulldozer protecting me, denting his suit and getting a nasty cut on his waist. I had offered to make it up to him since he had to take a few days off to heal. At first, he insisted that this was all part of the job and that there was no reason for me to apologise, but then he looked like something just occurred to him. “You know what, Bunny? Actually, there is something you can do for me! Um, if you could just be my lap pillow tonight?” Obviously, this was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of, but I can’t say I wasn’t expecting something like this. 

When we got to his place, I fixed him some fried rice since that was honestly the only thing I knew he liked to eat -- it was a wonder that he never got sick of it. Then after we finished, he moved to the couch and I cleaned the table. He waited for me to come over and directed me to sit at the far end, so that he could stretch out. Then his head was on my lap and I tried to be as still as possible. He pressed play on the remote and the title screen for a horror movie that looked pretty ridiculous appeared. It didn't seem very interesting, but I was too tense to pay attention to the movie anyway.

It seemed like Kotetsu couldn’t relax either and I realized that the request for a lap pillow might have just been a cover for not wanting to watch a scary movie alone. Although why wanting a lap pillow would seem less incriminating than not wanting to watch a horror movie alone was beyond me. 

I didn’t really mind all that much, though. In fact, I would have complied even if I didn’t feel so guilty about his new soon to be scar. After all, he had really done a lot for me and I wanted to reciprocate that somehow. He was important to me and I wanted to cherish him, but it's all easier said than done.

I looked down at him, sprawled on the couch with his head in my lap. I could almost remember doing the same thing as a child with my head in my mother’s lap and my mother’s gentle hands tracing invisible patterns on my back. It was so long ago that the memory was fuzzy at best, but I could still remember the contentment clearly. It was one of the many ways my mother used to show that she cared about me, and I was beginning to think that maybe I could do that for Kotetsu to show I cared about him.

I tentatively raised my hand to touch his back, but it felt way too intimate. To touch someone else simply for the sake of touching someone else was not something I had experienced a lot of in my life and I suddenly wasn't sure how to go about it. Surely, it would be weird and awkward. But I remembered how nice it felt and I wanted to do that for him. I was sure he’d probably appreciate it, and if nothing else, it might allow him to ease some of the tension caused by the grisly scenes on screen. 

I raised my hand again and just ever so slightly touched him. He went ramrod straight and stilled then turned back to look up at me. I drew my hand away quickly and mumbled, “Um, sorry” I was probably blushing and my stomach was clenched and jittery. I was officially out of my comfort zone.

Kotetsu breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you were the ghost! Don’t scare me like that Bunny!” He chuckled and he seemed to become more relaxed than before.

“Um, is it alright if I rub your back?” I wasn’t backing down now. I was nothing if not stubborn.

He looked up at me, looking kind of shocked, but mostly happy. “Of course!” He shifted so that he was closer to lying on his stomach as if to offer me better access.

I took a deep breath and gathered my courage. Then I clumsily put my hand on his back and kind of went up and down the length with my palm. It occurred to me I had no idea what I was doing or why I thought this would be a good idea in the first place.

I tried desperately to recall what my mother had done. It was the fingertips maybe. I switched to what might be called gently scratching his back, going from shoulder to waist. It was the patterns that I remembered liking though, so I tried to just make my path curvier -- focusing a little on the shoulder he hurt protecting me from Lunatic, then sliding down in a circuitous path to the new wound at his waist. 

I grew absorbed in my attempt at tracing unseen patterns and didn’t notice when the movie finished until Kotetsu shifted slightly and I halted, becoming aware of my surroundings. 

“Please don’t stop,” Kotetsu whispered like it was some sort of prayer likely to go unanswered. It came to me suddenly that Kotetsu probably missed this kind of intimacy. After his wife had died, he’d been all alone in this big house with no one to watch scary movies with or rub his back after a long day of getting beat up by bad guys. I could see myself reflected in those lonely nights and realised we were more alike than I thought. 

I obediently placed my hand back on his warm shoulder and continued as before, but when I had slowly worked my way down to the edge of his shirt, I slipped my hand under the light fabric. Kotetsu didn't open his eyes or move, but a small 'hmm' gave me all the encouragement I needed to keep going. 

His skin wasn’t exactly smooth, but the friction as my nails gently scraped along in gentle curves and the warmth I could feel as my fingertips pressed into the muscles on his back were somehow deeply satisfying to me. All of a sudden, I realized I was smiling and wondered if maybe I craved this kind of contact as badly as Kotetsu did. 

We stayed in the dark quiet with only the sound of our breathing, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. If anything, it gave the whole situation a surreal edge as if it were a moment from another dimension, where I wasn’t the handsome new hero with the tragic past, and he wasn’t the bumbling fool everyone ignored. 

A snore rumbled under my fingertips and I looked down at Kotetsu’s face to see that he had fallen asleep. I did one last long pet down his back then righted his shirt that had gotten pushed up along the way. 

“Now what?” I mumbled under my breath, breaking the moment. I couldn’t sit there all night with his head in my lap. I grabbed the nearest pillow and attempted to squirm out from underneath him while wedging the pillow in my place, but I woke him.

“Sorry” I said, not bothering with trying to be careful anymore and standing up straight. “I tried not wake you.”

“Huh? No, it’s fine. I would have gotten a crick in my neck if you had left me like that anyway.”

“You really are an old man sometimes.”

“Hey!” He stretched as he got up, like a cat would, and flinched a bit at the pain. “I’m gonna go hit the hay. You’re welcome to stay over if you want. I don’t really want to get out the extra bedding, so you’d have to share with me, though.” He gave a rueful smile at his admission to laziness.

Going home to my apartment did not sound very appealing in that moment, so I agreed. I followed him upstairs and he slipped into his bed, moving all the way to the wall to give me room, then lifted the covers for me to climb in after him. As soon as we were settled in, he was snoring again, and his warmth seeped into me under the covers lulling me to sleep not long afterwards.


	2. Gentle Beat

I woke up slowly with a fuzzy haze in my thoughts. I took a deep breath in and out, smiling with my eyes still closed, soaking in the moment of peace, which were all too few and far between. 

As I gradually woke up further, I remembered where I was and noticed a steady thumping sound coming from my pillow, which was certainly harder than it was last night. A sinking realization came to me as I felt an arm against my back, curving up to a hand resting on my waist. My head was resting on Kotetsu's chest with his gently beating heart tucked inside. My brain finally came online as I considered how I should proceed. This kind of situation wasn't exactly covered at school. 

Upon further assessment of the situation, it didn’t necessarily feel awful. It felt so comfortable, in fact, that it made me kind of panicky -- was I supposed to like being wrapped in someone’s arms like this? ‘Maybe I should just try to go back to sleep,’ I suggested to myself since I was surprisingly reluctant to move, but now there were butterflies in my stomach that were determined to keep me awake. My pulse was also quickening and I needed to get away or I would never get back to sleep. I savoured the gentle sense of security for a moment longer and then propped myself up on one elbow, about to move away, when I realized Kotetsu’s eyes were open. He grinned lazily up at me and mumbled, “Good morning, Bunny.”

Mortification hit me so hard, it knocked the wind out of me. I felt my face heat up and just knew that I must be blushing furiously as Kotetsu chuckled at me. ‘So much for my moment of peace.’

“Don’t worry, my daughter likes to sleep like that, too. Something about heartbeats and how they calm people or something. I think I read about it once?” He left it as an open question and I somehow doubted Kotetsu read much of anything, much less about the effects of listening to heartbeats.

I was still embarrassed, but I was recovering and trying to keep my cool as I asked, “So how long have you been awake?”

He looked a little sheepish when he replied, “Oh, not long.” Which of course, made me think the opposite was true. I didn’t pursue it, though, since I probably didn’t want to know. I rubbed my hands down my face and sighed, grabbing my glasses and putting them on.

“Do you have anything to eat for breakfast?” Not the most subtle subject change, but it did the trick.

“...You mean besides fried rice?” I looked at him in what I hoped to be a properly scandalized fashion. There were absolutely limits to liking a food and he had just crossed them. “Don’t look at me like that Bunny! I’m only kidding!” I wasn’t convinced.

“So what do you have to eat then?” I countered, choosing to address his addiction to fried rice some other time.

“I could do pancakes. I think I still have some mix in the cupboard.” That actually sounded pretty good at the moment. He must have seen something on my face because he smiled and declared, “Alright, pancakes it is!”

He stood up on the bed and walked over me, which made the mattress dip somewhat precariously and I nearly fell over as he jumped onto the floor. I stared after him, stunned, then followed without a word because really, shouldn’t I expect this behaviour from him by now?

He had already gotten the mix out and was reading the box when I got to the kitchen. I walked over to the coffee maker and started it. It rumbled as it came to life and started dripping into the pot. I looked over when I heard a sizzle as the pancake batter was poured onto the pan. I leaned against the counter and watched as he held the spatula above the pan, focused as if one millisecond would be the deciding factor between perfect and burnt. He flipped and then looked over at me excitedly to show off how perfectly golden brown it was. Of course, the other side is always harder to get right and he burned it a bit. I didn’t really mind, but he cringed when it hit the plate. Then he started on the next.

The coffee had finished, so I was enjoying a cup as I observed Kotetsu fixing me pancakes. I had the sudden urge to hug him well up inside me, which was weird in and of itself, but given how close we had been just that morning it was even stranger. Suddenly it occurred to me that maybe it was precisely because we had been so close, that I now wanted to be closer. From that moment, I decided to be more be careful not to get too close. 'But how does one go about getting closer without getting too close?' I mused to myself.

When he had fixed four, he gave me the plate and told me the butter was in the refrigerator and the syrup was in the cabinet. I passed on the syrup in favour of the butter. I sat at the table and started eating while Kotetsu fixed his own plate. “These are actually pretty good.” Not that there’s really much skill needed to make pancakes from a box, but Kotetsu turned to me and beamed, seemingly proud of his masterpiece. I looked at him unimpressed, but Kotetsu remained unfazed, and I smiled as I turned back to my pancakes. Kotetsu came over and sat down with his pancakes absolutely soaked in syrup. “Kotetsu, don’t you think you have a little too much syrup on that?” I cringed at the sickly sweet mess. ‘For breakfast?’

“And I see you don’t have any.” He replied back looking as disapproving as I felt. I couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous it all was. Here we were, two heroes who took down an evil mastermind and saved Sternbuild, waking up together to eat pancakes and complaining about how much syrup you should use on your pancakes. Kotetsu didn’t seem to get it, but he smiled back anyway.


	3. Gentle Whisper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kotetsu's POV

Bunny had been acting strangely for a while before he nearly got hit with that bulldozer. At first, I’d thought that maybe he was still readjusting and that I should give him some time, you know? But I couldn’t just sit by when he’s putting himself in danger like that. I tried to bring up that idea of maybe taking a break for a little while, but he refused without really considering it.

After the doctors patched me up, Bunny came into my hospital room near tears. I tried to tell him it was only a flesh wound to comfort him a bit. “What are you so worried about? This isn’t my first rodeo, you know! And I’m not at the point where ‘I’ve fallen and I can’t get up’ is a viable catchphrase.” I was trying to get him to laugh, but he stubbornly refused to just let it go. 

When he asked if there was anything he could do to make up for it, I was about to refuse on principle -- we’re partners so of course we’re supposed to watch out for each other, no need to get so worked up over it -- but then I had a moment of genius! I figured I could use this opportunity to figure out what in the world was going on with Bunny. If I could just get him to come over to my place, where we could be alone to talk freely, then he’d tell me why he’s been acting weird. I asked for the first thing that came to mind -- a lap pillow -- which surprised him into giving me one of his usual ‘crazy old man’ looks. 

Of course, I should have known it wouldn’t be so easy. In retrospect, I’m not sure why I was so confident that if we just had a moment alone, he would suddenly confide in me like we’re best friends or something. In the end, he was quiet for the most part of the evening, and when I put my head in his lap, he tensed and clammed up further. I sighed as I turned on the movie I had borrowed from Antonio a while ago. I hadn’t bothered to check what movie it was, but it was just my bad luck that it was a horror movie.

I silently cursed Antonio. He knew I was bad with horror movies. I didn’t like the idea of ghosts and things that you couldn’t actually fight barehanded. I debated turning it off, but I was trying to seem reliable so that Bunny would tell me what he was worried about and all. What would it say about me if I couldn’t even handle a scary movie? 

I tried to stay calm as the movie progressed. So far it wasn’t too bad, but then the main character was walking down this dark hallway and I just knew this was not going to end well. The music was doing the thing and I was mentally yelling at him to turn around turn around, ‘She’s right behind you! I can’t even watch! No No NO NOOOO!’ At that exact moment, I felt something on my back. My heart stopped and I am so proud of myself for not screaming. I slowly turned my head to look behind me at Bunny and he looked kind of embarrassed. I released the breath I had been holding. “Don’t scare me like that, Bunny!”

When he asked if he could rub my back, I was understandably flabbergasted. I mean, we’re talking, cool, calm, collected Barnaby Brooks Jr, you know? That being said, far be it from me to reject a back rub! I hadn’t had one of those since… well, in a really long time. I used to absolutely love them, and I had a friend who wanted to be a masseuse but apparently I was no fun since all I did was go limp. It’s just that it was like a cat’s neck for me -- some sort of innate switch that made all my muscles relax like a rag doll. 

At first, it was pretty clear that Bunny didn’t know what he was doing, and I had to suppress my chuckle. Bunny could just be so endearing sometimes. He seemed to kind of figure it out though and it was so nice that I became single-mindedly devoted to the feel of it. The movie seemed distant and I watched dispassionately as the main character got caught by a whole swarm of ghosts. Then the end credits started rolling, hypnotizing me into going to sleep, but I shifted to keep myself awake and felt Bunny’s hand go still. 

“Please don’t stop.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I sounded pathetic even to my own ears, but it was absolutely worth it when Bunny continued without a word. Unfortunately, I fell asleep before long and was awakened by Bunny trying to get up. I offered him my bed, thinking he’d probably refuse and be kind of snooty about it, but instead he just followed me quietly and I grew concerned again, but it was late and we were both tired after a long day, so I didn’t push it. Even if he didn’t want to tell me anything, as long as he knew I was a safe place for him, maybe that was enough.

I don’t really remember falling back asleep, but I remember being kicked rudely awake. I raised myself on my arms and looked over at Bunny, ready to give him a talk about how people shouldn’t kick people when they’re sound asleep, but the words died in my mouth when I saw him tossing and turning with his brow furrowed like he was about to cry. I realized that it had to be a nightmare and sighed because this poor kid had been put through so much and he didn’t deserve any of it. I wasn’t sure if it would wake him or not, but I gently whispered to him, “Shhh, it’s okay. You’re safe here. Shhh.” He slowed and some of the tension left his face. I slipped closer to him, so I could cradle his head and bring it to my chest. “It’s okay Bunny, you’re going to be fine.” He finally subsided and it just about broke my heart. I wrapped my arm around him to hold him closer, trying to keep everything bad at bay. I carded my fingers through his hair, catching on a few tangles and easing them apart so I could pass through. 

It suddenly panged me that I used to do this for Kaede when she was little, making me miss her. My eyes stung a little with the threat of tears and I swallowed hard past the knot in my throat. Hero or not, I should have been there for her more growing up. Thinking about how I’ve let her down, how Tomoe would have known what to do, I couldn’t get back to sleep and ended up staring blankly into the dark.

I felt movement at my side and wondered if maybe the nightmares were coming back, but instead I was graced with a smile that I felt more than saw. He stayed there for a bit longer before propping himself up and the face he made when he realized that I was already awake was priceless. He turned so many shades of red, it was adorable and I couldn’t help but chuckle, clearing the cobwebs from my thoughts.

“Good morning, Bunny.” He looked like he wanted to say it was anything but. “Don’t worry, my daughter likes to sleep like that, too. Something about heartbeats and how they calm people or something. I think I read about it once?” I knew it sounded flimsy, but it’s the truth that heartbeats are the best lullabies, whether some scientist wrote an article about it or not. He asked me how long I had been awake and the pause probably gave me away but I told him that it hadn’t been long. I was relieved when he dropped it, and gratefully switched to the topic of breakfast. I jumped up and stepped across the bed, making a flourish as I jumped down to shake the last of the thoughts from last night.

I fixed him some pancakes, feeling strangely at home in the domesticity of it. There was just something about taking care of someone that gave him peace of mind. When Bunny declared that they were the most delicious pancakes in the world (He actually said they were “pretty good”, but I know that's Bunny-speak for amazing.), I couldn’t help but bask in the satisfaction that I had been in some way useful, and even though I hadn’t succeeded in getting Bunny to tell me why he’d been acting so weird, the way he laughed while we ate made me think that it was mission accomplished after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking this is the end of Gently Now. I swear this pairing is so bittersweet for me. 
> 
> I might make it two chapters so that it's one from Bunny's POV and one from Kotetsu's POV, but we'll see. 
> 
> In any case, I hope you liked it!


End file.
